Questions about IOS versions and feature sets

[shikamarunara]

I'm in the process of acquiring routers and switches for my lab and would like some advice.

1) Is there an easy way to find out if a version of IOS supports a specific feature set that I'm looking for? I'd like to know, for instance, if HSRP, OSPF, BGP. FW, and VPN is supported for a particular IOS for a 2610 router. If I look up this router on the cisco web page I find all of the versions of IOS that are campatible and a rough description with system requirements. But the description is too general and I'm wondering if I'm looking in the right place.

2) I have bascially the same question for switches; how do you tell if a version of IOS supports layer 3 switching?

Thanks,

-Shikamaru

[ajagadee]

Shikamaru,

The best place to research Software, Feature, Platform, Image, etc., is the Feature Navigator.

Please refer the below URL for details.

http://tools.cisco.com/ITDIT/CFN/jsp/index.jsp

I hope it helps.

Regards,

Arul